Audio video content is typically broadcast with breaks filled by additional media contents e.g. advertisements. Third parties, such as advertisers, can purchase airtime corresponding to these breaks to air media contents e.g. television advertisements.
Broadcasters and/or television platform operators typically control and decide in advance when and where to place these breaks in the audio video content. Therefore, media contents can be inserted in the breaks in an optimal manner. Well-known techniques such as advertisement substitution/insertion may also be applied for replacing initial advertisements by targeted and/or customized advertisements more relevant to the final user.
However, for certain type of television broadcast audio video contents, such as sports events, live coverage of an award ceremony, or even in advertisement substitution/insertion scenarios, the start time, duration and placement of these breaks may vary from one break to another and may not be known in advance. Therefore, it becomes more complicated to predict the occurrence and duration of those breaks and to optimally select and fill them with advertisements.
U.S. Published Patent Application 2010/0023964 of AT&T Labs describes systems, methods, and computer readable-media for temporally adaptive media playback. The method for adaptive media playback includes estimating or determining an amount of time between a first event and a second event, selecting media content to fill the estimated amount of time between the first event and the second event, and playing the selected media content possibly at a reasonably different speed to fit the time interval. One embodiment includes events that are destination-based or temporal-based. Another embodiment includes adding, removing, speeding up, or slowing down selected media content in order to fit the estimated amount of time between the first event and the second event or to modify the selected media content to adjust to an updated estimated amount of time. Another embodiment bases selected media content on a user or group profile.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,996,422 of AT&T Intellectual Property L.L.P., describes systems, methods, and computer readable-media for adaptive media playback based on destination. The method for adaptive media playback comprises determining one or more destinations, collecting media content that is relevant to or describes the one or more destinations, assembling the media content into a program, and outputting the program. In various embodiments, media content may be advertising, consumer-generated, based on real-time events, based on a schedule, or assembled to fit within an estimated available time. Media content may be assembled using an adaptation engine that selects a plurality of media segments that fit in the estimated available time, orders the plurality of media segments, alters at least one of the plurality of media segments to fit the estimated available time, if necessary, and creates a playlist of selected media content containing the plurality of media segments.